The Mask
by Gelles
Summary: Mina muses leadership, lifestyles, and fog.


The Mask  
A Sailor Moon fanfic by Kristin Renee Taylor  
(gelles@yahoo.com)  
  
  
It was a beautiful night. The clear sky was ablaze with starlight and  
the constant, lower blinking that signified planes. The full moon  
provided plenty of cool light so that I could clearly see each of the  
individual warehouses. It's watery reflection, seemingly bloated by  
the water, billowed on the Tokyo bay. Like I said, it was a beautiful  
evening.  
  
Pity someone would have to die.  
  
I stood on a rooftop of the warehouse where, only minutes  
earlier, I had resucued a man in a tuxedo from some wigged out psycho  
woman with a crystal sword. I didn't know who either were; Artemis  
had only given me as much information as he thought I needed to know.  
From my position I could clearly see the loading docks, and the large  
black dome resting in almost the center of it. I could also see the  
right side of the man generating that force field and, if I squinted,  
I could make out the shadowy details of the four girls trapped  
within.  
  
"Katarina would kick my butt if she knew what I was doing," I  
muttered.  
  
"What was that?" Artemis, crouched on the railing, looked up at  
me. I smiled at him, but winced internally. "Nothing, Artemis. Just  
thinking about how beautiful the night is."  
  
"Yeah," he said, glacing briefly at the sky. "It is. You gonna  
send her a postcard of Tokyo at night?" Damn that cat's ears.  
  
"Maybe," I replied, only slightly surprised that I could keep my  
voice calm. Ever since that night in the warehouse in England, I'd  
felt strangly detatched, as though someone else was living my life  
for me, and I was merely a visitor along for the ride. Even now,  
feeling the wind rushing past my exposed skin and pulling my hair out  
behind me, I felt curiuosly distant and serene. None of it felt real.  
  
"You know the plan?" he asked me.  
  
"Of course I do," I repsonded absently. "I've known the plan  
since we got back. The only thing that could possibly go wrong with  
the plan would be those four girls."  
  
"Hey now, Mina, those are your soon-to-be teammates."  
  
"Yeah, and look where they are now. Caught in a blatantly obvious  
trap, even though they outnumber then enemy two to one. Two and a  
half to one if you count that guy in the tux." Movement within the  
dome. I leaned forward slightly and tried to see into it. "Frankly,  
Artemis, those four don't take their job seriously enough." I saw him  
open his mouth, and I said angrily, "I saw them earlier. Two of them  
do nothing but squabble like chickens pecking at turnips and the  
other two spend all their time trying to keep the first two apart. In  
fact, I think the only competent one is that Mercury chick. But only  
when the others aren't around."  
  
He looked at me, startled, "Don't you think you're being a bit  
harsh? After all, you haven't even met them yet."  
  
I straightened and started to walk away. The white cat jumped  
down to follow me. "That was a conservative estimate, Artemis. I'll  
save you from knowing what I really think of them. But never fear,  
Mina's here, and she's gonna whip those sorry Sailors into shape."  
  
"You don't have to do that, Mina. You're not the leader."  
  
"No, but I've have almost a year's worth of experience on those  
four, and I know what we're up against, therefore I'm the most  
qualified to lead. Those four won't slack off while I'm around."  
  
"That's strange, coming from you. You never took your Scout  
duties this seriously before we left England."  
  
"People change, Artemis. Especially when they're 14 year old  
girls fighting evil monsters in a foreign land." At the other end of  
the rooftop, I pulled out my transformation wand as Artemis lept onto  
my shoulder. I leaped off the side, transforming in mid-air, and  
landed in a crouch on the wooden walkway. Artemis dropped nimbly to  
the ground. "At any rate, let's get this over with. The sooner I kill  
off those two Dark Kingdom cretins, the sooner we can invade and blow  
those goons to Hell."  
  
Artemis looked up at me. The lighting was bad here, so I couldn't  
tell what expression he had on his face. His voice, however, sounded  
strangly sad. "You don't care anymore, do you?"  
  
I stood hastily. "We have a job to do, Artemis." Turning, I  
prepared to leap back to the rooftop.  
  
"What's more important to you, Mina? Being a Sailor Scout, or  
being a normal girl?"  
  
I glanced back at him once, then pushed off the ground so hard  
that, for a moment, I thought I would overshoot the rooftop. I landed  
badly in the center of the roof, almost spraining my ankle as I  
rolled forward to absorb the shock of the landing. Swearing, I  
climbed to my feet and limped back to my vantage point.  
  
The dome had shrunk even further, and the man had been joined by  
the psycho woman. She seemed rather upset, and I smiled slightly.  
That'll teach her to pick on innocent, injured tuxedo-clad men. Their  
voices drifted easily up to me, but I ignored them, instead waiting  
for the cue Artemis would give for me to attack.  
  
The plan was horridly simple. Artemis would signal me from the  
set of stacked pipes all the way across the loading docks, which I  
could easily see from where I stood. When I saw him, I would leap off  
the building and, while the evil duo below was distracted by my  
sudden appearance, I'd blow the guy's head off with my Crescent Beam.  
His death would cause the force field to vanish and I, along with the  
others, would finish off the woman. Introductions would be made, and  
I'd go home to lie in my bed and be tormented by thoughts of what I  
had done.  
  
The only problem was that I don't know how the others would  
react. Luna, the four Scouts' guardian cat, had told Artemis about  
the Scouts personalities, and he in turn had told me. Having worked  
with a police officer for a year, I was pretty inured to death and  
destruction. After all, I learned the hard way that not all monsters  
dissolve into dust after you blow their chest open.  
  
That was a bad thing to think of. I wonder how Katarina dealt  
with... Shit. "Stay focused, Mina. Katarina doesn't want you  
anymore."  
  
A new voice spoke up, startling me. Dragging myself from my  
morbid thoughts, I searched around and spotted the tuxedo man from  
earlier lurching around the corner of another building. I didn't know  
what they were talking about; I had never heard of a "Rainbow  
Crystal," but I sure as Hell wasn't about to let those sleezeballs  
get them.  
  
"He's not giving you anything!" I shouted, and leaped over the  
edge. I was aiming for the man's head even as I fell. I could've  
easily picked him off from mid-air, but I didn't, and to this day I  
don't know why. I mean, I could easily picture what shooting him  
would look like. Too easily. Dammit, Artemis, I've tried being a  
normal girl. I've tried being a Sailor Scout. And neither worked!  
There had to be a way to balance both lives.  
  
I spared a quick look at the black dome as I hit the pavement.  
And quite suddenly I had the answer to Artemis' question. Somehow  
those four had managed to balance their Scout lives with their normal  
lives. And if I hung around them, I'd proably be able to do so, too.  
  
I grabbed the mask that covered my eyes, the very symbol of  
Sailor V, and ripped it off. Without the mask I was nothing more than  
Mina Aino in a Sailor uniform. 'No', I amended silently as I adjusted  
my aim, 'I'm Sailor Venus and Mina Aino! And that's the way it's  
gonna stay.'  
  
I smiled, and for the first time since that fateful night a  
deranged man tried to blow me up with a hand grenade, it was  
unforced.  
  
"Venus Crescent Beam SMASH!"  
  
  
Fin.  
  
  
Author's notes:  
  
Set during the American episode "Sailor V Makes the Scene." I've  
taken some minor poetic justice with it (like the fact Mina calls the  
Negaverse the "Dark Kingdom." As far as I'm concerned, until she got  
to Japan, she knew them as the "Dark Kingdom." I can't help it if  
I think the Negaverse is a stupid name. :).  
  
Comments, criticisms, and ideas are gratefully accepted. Even the  
flames. Please address all the aforementioned stuff to  
gelles@yahoo.com.  
  
  
Disclaimer:  
Sailor Venus, Artemis, and all the unnamed masses that you know are  
the Sailor Scouts, don't belong to me. I take no claim to them. In  
fact, all I take claim to is my brain.  



End file.
